Storm in a glass of water 🌊

Happy Monday

For this week's newsletter, we have two different topics. An update on last week's newsletter and a brief on Staatsolie's offshore drilling. 

Update on SLM

The investigation team set up by President Chan Santokhi into payments to outsiders at the Suriname Airline (SLM) states that "all in all it seems like a storm in a glass of water." According to investigators Ron Wijnstekers and Mahinder Sewgobind, it is unfortunate that this issue was not nipped in the bud. Prenobe Bissessur was made available from the Office of the President because he had the desired legal knowledge and he could assist President-Elect Xaviera Jessurun and the CEO, Paul de Haan, in the process, states the 12-page final report of the investigation that was conducted.

Both de Haan and Jessurun- they argue - have always acted on instructions from the cluster ministers. Also regarding this issue so it appears from the documents in the framework of the consultation - as it appears that the cluster minister team was aware of the contract with Bissessur. It was said by the President-Commissioner at the level of the cluster ministers "if you want us to stop him, we will stop him, however, that is going to cause delay."

The Bissessur firm spent 1,011.8 hours on the project, according to the hourly specification. The firm claimed an amount of €122,500 (excluding VAT) from client SLM. This amounts to a fee of €121 per hour which firm Bissessur effectively charged for this assignment.

Staatsolie Offshore Exploration Drilling

The operators of Block-58 and Block-53 completed two exploration wells in the past week. APA (APA Corporation) announced last week that the exploration of the Dikkop-1 well in Block-58 was completed. While the exploration results in Block-58 have been particularly good, the result from Dikkop-1 highlights the risks and uncertainties of exploration drilling and also the complexity of the Suriname Basin.

To date, 7 exploration wells have been drilled in Block-58, 5 of which have discovered significant hydrocarbon reservoirs requiring further assessment, starting with Maka-1 in 2020. The discovery of Baja-1 also helps reduce the risks of similar exploration opportunities in the rest of Block-53, highlighting the potential of offshore Suriname, including outside of Block-58. Two drilling platforms will be active in Block-58, which will conduct both exploration and assessment drilling. In Block-42, Shell has recently started drilling an exploration well.